Jed, Do you know the orientation of the flow meter? It is only possible to have a pipe half full if the flow meter is mounted horizontally (a mistake for use of this type of flow meter). That problem could have been totally eliminated if the flow meter were oriented vertically.
An observation (agreeing with yours) is that turbine type flow measurements are really measurements of the flow speed of the medium (water). The flow meter presumes a full pipe in calculation of the volumetric flow rate. The turbine blade is meant to turn with the smallest possible friction so as to create as to minimize flow resistance. If the flow meter was mounted horizontally, and the pipe was half full, the turbine would turn at the speed of the water (same as if it were full) - since a full pipe was presumed in the indication of rate, it would be in error by the volumetric difference between the pipe full volume and the pipe partly filled volume. On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 7:51 AM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > I wrote: > > >> Look at Exhibit 5, and also look at what Rossi told Lewan. The >> temperature is just over 100°C and the flow rate is 36,000 kg per day. The >> pressure is 0 bar. It is the same every day, including days when the >> reactor was shut down, according to Exhibit 5. >> >> If you assume there was actually some pressure, then there was only hot >> water, not steam, where the temperature went from 60°C to 100°C. Assume >> there was 20 kW of input power. That's 20,000 J/s = 4,780 cal. . . . >> > > Let me revise this using the numbers from Exhibit 5. Exhibit 5 shows the > water reservoir was 68.7°C and the fluid was 102.8°C, a temperature > difference of 34.1°C. > > As described in Exhibit 5, the pressure of 0.0 bar is unlikely because it > would mean the reactor room is in a vacuum. "Given the foregoing, this > would require that the pressure on the JMP side of the building was > significantly below atmospheric (vacuum) and that the steam would flow at > extraordinary velocity." > > Let me assume the pressure was a little higher than 1 atm. That means the > fluid was pressurized and it was probably not steam. It was probably hot > water. Assume it was hot water and the temperature increased by 34.1°C. > Input power was 20,000 J/s = 4,780 cal. Divide by 34.1°C gives a flow rate > of 140 g/s. That's 8.41 kg/minute or 12,111 kg/day. The flow meter > indicated 36,000 kg/day, so I estimate it was wrong by a factor of ~3. > > As I said, that is not a surprising error, given that the pipe was half > full and it was the wrong kind of flow meter. > > - Jed > >
